Health Insurance First time insurance family of 6

[Mamagrande]

Hi,
I'm looking for some advice on taking out health insurance for a family of 6. We recently moved from the UK to Dublin and I'm totally confused by all the options available! I understand that any pre existing conditions won't be covered for 5 years.
Family consists of myself (39), husband (37) and four children (11, 7, 4, 22 months). Husband has a number of preexisting conditions including high blood pressure and hearing loss and uses hearing aids he purchased privately. The 4 year old has had a number of hospital stays in the UK for chest infections but has never been given any diagnoses of any conditions such as asthma. The youngest was diagnosed before birth with a brain condition that could have an impact on many different areas of health, but so far he is asymptomatic. The rest of us are in good health. We have GP visit cards for the youngest two.
I think we are likely to have high day to day costs and would like to have some cover for dental and optical. We would also like cover for public and private hospitals. I just don't want to be paying out loads and then husband and youngest get any future illness linked to their preexisting conditions for five years!
Sorry for the essay! Any guidance or advice gratefully received.

 

[odyssey06]

For starters, the HIA website has very good information about exactly what is available on which plans.
Often, better than is available on the insurers' own websites:
http://www.hia.ie/

I have been insured with VHI and Laya and have had no issues with either provider, switched from VHI to Laya for cost reasons.

There are some good recent posts here focused on insurance for children:
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads/children-under-6-health-insurance-at-a-minimum.201957/
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/thread...one-plan-500-2-kids-o-one-plan-family.201892/

Keep receipts for any doctor visits, prescriptions etc
You will likely only receive part payment on these from your provider. The remainder can be claimed through the PAYE system under a "MED1" for a 20% tax credit.

You can get separate dental insurance. The cover on medical plans is very limited - and is usually intended to cover checkups \ routine only.
Keep the receipts from emergency dental work, as that can be claimed for tax credits under a "MED2".

If day to day cover is important, pay attention to the excess on the policy.
Optical is part of day to day care, with LAYA Health Secure Plus, I have been able to claim back 50% of the cost for prescription glasses up to €150 per year.
Some plans such as LAYA Simplicity which are very good for hospital cover have a €200 excess for day to day care.
So if you had, for example, 1 GP visit and 1 pair new glasses in the year, you wouldn't actually get any money back as that'd just bring you to the €200 excess.

 

[michaelm]

A lot depends on what you are prepared to spend. For example for both adults to go on Laya's Simplicity plan and all kids on their Essential Connect Family plan [broken link removed] costs around €2400 (only one child has to pay on Essential Connect Family).